


friendzoned and loving it

by KDblack



Series: Dragon Ball Collection [12]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: F/M, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, The power of friendship, some troubling unchildlike behavior from bulma, vegeta and chi-chi are there also
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-17 03:33:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29093535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KDblack/pseuds/KDblack
Summary: It might surprise you to hear, but before she turned 16 and went haring off after seven mythological wish-granting artifacts, Bulma had never had a real friend.
Relationships: Bulma Briefs & Son Goku
Series: Dragon Ball Collection [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1696063
Comments: 72
Kudos: 35





	friendzoned and loving it

It might surprise you to hear, but before she turned 16 and went haring off after seven mythological wish-granting artifacts, Bulma had never had a real friend. Part of that was on her upbringing: being the very young, very smart daughter of two brilliant scientists made her a kidnap risk, among other things, and people were very protective of her when they thought she was too young to take care of herself. They were wrong, of course, but changing their minds was like trying to bail out a sinking ship with a teaspoon – virtually impossible. She managed it in the end, because she’s Bulma Briefs, but the experience changed her.

The other part of it was that the world just wasn’t ready for her. Or maybe, she thought quietly in days of frustrated adolescence, too scared to say it out loud, she wasn’t ready for it. The planet was still scarred by fear back then, every city-state either living in fear of Demon King Piccolo’s legendary return or too beaten to focus on anything more complicated than getting back on its feet. Scared people aren’t known for being very progressive, and Bulma – 

Bulma has always been very pretty and she speaks her mind. She got both those traits from her mother and she’s very proud of them. That doesn’t mean they haven’t caused her a lot of grief over the years. Her mother taught her biology and her father taught her engineering, but neither of them could teach her how to make the world take her seriously. Imagine it: a cute little girl in pigtails sitting at the big kids’ table, her feet dangling above the floor, trying to explain her new Capsule designs to a military that took one look at her and decided they didn’t want anything she made. Standing on piles of books in her own lab while people hired as her assistants ignored her requests and brushed off her orders. Looking back, it’s no wonder that she was such an angry kid. She had a lot to be pissed off about.

When her boobs grew in, things got a bit easier. Nobody taught her how to shrug her shirts down so low it was almost indecent or wear short skirts and shorter shorts to meet her most annoying clients. She picked it up all on her own, watching her mother use a vacant smile and miniskirts to make people do whatever she wanted without even realizing they were being used. Bulma never quite mastered that smile, but then, she never wanted to go unnoticed. From the moment she could walk, Bulma was screaming _Look at me! Listen to me! Respect me!_

It never worked out. 

Eventually, she decided that she should’ve known better. Nobody respected her mother, either. Only her father took her mother’s brain seriously, and they still had to publish all their findings under his name. That part sucked, but you know what didn’t? The evenings they spent together in the lab, cheerily discussing the contents of Petri dishes. The afternoons spent working on machines and drawing up blueprints for even more. The way they talked about each other’s work and always had each other’s backs. No matter how embarrassing her parents were, they were in love. Bulma wanted that.

At 16 years old, Bulma found a magical artifact, built something no one else took seriously, and set off on an adventure, confident she knew everything about how the world worked. True love, here she came.

That didn’t work out, either, but for once, Bulma didn’t hate having her plans thwarted. Goku was an idiot. A complete dumbass. A tool. But he looked at her inventions like they were marvels – looked at her like she knew what she was talking about – and that was a heady feeling. Even when she failed at step one of wilderness survival or shoved her foot into her mouth, he respected her. Hell, even when she called him out on being totally wrong about stuff, he respected her. She was used to fighting with her peers for every scrap of approval, and he just handed the stuff out like it was nothing. 

She kept waiting for him to fall in love with her. He never did. But he did hollow himself a little home in her chest, right beside her parents and Scratch and science itself, and that’s even better, so she forgave him his failure. After all, she never fell in love with him, either. Not even when she saw him all grown up, that first time he won the Tenkaichi Budokai. Bleeding, unbroken, victorious. Strongest under the heavens. Biceps bigger than Bulma’s head, cheekbones she could cut herself on, and all she could think was how happy he looked in that moment.

Then he zoomed off with Chi-Chi on that cloud that never let her ride it and Bulma felt like smacking him because how dare he leave her behind again. When she tracked him down at his grandpa’s old cottage, she threw her bike at his head, had a good yell with Chi-Chi, and moved in with the newlyweds for the next three months to make a point. They accepted it. Accepted her. Years and years later, Chi-Chi took Gohan by the hand and marched into Bulma’s house, where she stayed until Vegeta fled the planet to get away from her glare. Which, ha! Coward. 

He came back eventually. So did Goku, but that was never in question. No matter what is or isn’t between them, Bulma will never let Goku leave her behind. 

Is that true love?

Pfft. Nah.

As it turns out, 16-year-old Bulma didn’t know jack about how the world worked. She’s not sure how much she knows about it now. Demon King Piccolo is gone and the city-states freed from the shadow of fear, leaving them to grow wildly. There’s space for little girls with brains too big for their age now, even if Bulma grudgingly admits that she’s no longer one of them. The universe is wide and filled with strangeness, especially now that Frieza is also dead and gone, and she’s excited to contribute to the madness. No matter how chill he may seem on the surface, she knows that Goku is too. They’ve both got someone waiting for them at home now, which makes it all the more important that they go charging off on adventures together. Chi-Chi and Vegeta didn't sign up to deal with the two of them at their nuttiest, and they have a way of bringing out the crazy in each other.

There’s a word for boys whose rippling muscles and guileless eyes make you think about driving off-road to the really good fishing spots, cackling like a madwoman, while he clings to the roof of the truck and eggs you on. 

Friends, huh? It has a nice ring to it.


End file.
